Where the creek enters our property there is a spot on the ground that stays wet even during droughts. There’s a spring that exits beneath a rock just uphill. We call this wet spot ‘The Seep’, or as my husband says it “the Weep”.

Earlier this year we put up a game camera mainly to see how bad the pigs are getting, because we knew they loved that spot.

It’s a major Wildlife Crossing

After reviewing the game camera data, we see that so many other animals love it, too. It’s a busy wildlife crossing.

At the video below you can see bobcat, fox or coyote, a screech owl bathing in the seep, the cinnamon bear, wild turkey, armadillo, raccoon, and the feral pigs.

This is still a ‘black bear’ even though it’s brown, or cinnamon colored. Maybe this is the one that keeps messing with our spring up the mountain.

The Pig Dilemma

The pigs cause a lot of damage all around the property and they eat everything the other browsing wildlife need. While I hate the idea of killing things, we need to eliminate all or most of this herd. Or wait it out and see if they leave once all of the ground food is gone.

If you’ve ever had a feral pig invasion and took no action against it, what has been the outcome?

Low Impact Co-existence

One of my favorite things about living in wilderness is … the wildlife. There’s a healthy balance of predator and prey here, and we try to maintain a low impact existence here. But these pigs are not low impact. They’re not native or even migrants from other climates, like the armadillo. They’re farm animals that were released into the wild long ago. And they’re smart. It’s not easy to simply kill them all.

I’d like to see less (or no) pigs at the seep wildlife crossing. They’ve made a muddy mess of what used to be a pristine wet spot with clear water running through it.